I think this Internet thing is here to stay...

Before I went to bed last night, I sent out an S.O.S. to all my twitter friends. I got an overwhelming response. Lots and lots of re-tweets to try and find me a bike. It was apparent that if my bike didn't show up, somehow I'd still have one for the race. I had lots of different options to chose from. It was so comforting to know this and I was able to fall asleep without worry. I didn't once dream of my missing bike.

Some of the notables was Todd Kenyon from TT Bike Fit that pointed me to the Kestrel booth and gave me a contact that may have been able to loan me a demo bike to use. Another was John Fortin who was prepared to box his bike and ship it from Ontario. Then Davis Sohor in Winnipeg had a list of bike booths in Clearwater and heard they've borrowed bikes in the past. Then Samantha Dickey suggested that I put a post on Beginner Triathlete forum, which lead to the ultimate solution. I got a call on my cell during the pre-race dinner from Adam Alonzo of Clearwater and he was ready to help. He had a similar thing happen to him in St. Croix.

I couldn't believe it, with just a post to twitter, a blog entry and a forum posting, I got all kinds of support and options. It was amazing!!! Even though I've never met 90% of these people face to face, I felt cared for and among friends. It was really heart warming and comforting and took away the stress of the situation.

The good news was that Southwest found the bike and it arrived in Tampa at 11 am. It worked out perfectly. The weather was so bad in the morning that even if I had the bike I wouldn't have went for my training ride until the afternoon anyways.

First thing this morning, Alice and I went for breakfast across the street from the hotel. It was a hole in the wall breakfast only joint, crammed with people and great serving staff. We shared a table with Nathaniel Tollefson and his Australian friend, I think her name was Maggie. I checked out his stats, he's in my 40 - 44 age group and in 2007 did a 4:38 in Clearwater. He was a nice guy from Minnesota and for a runner who didn't swim six years ago, he was able to get his swim down to a 1:38 per 100 meters in a race. Impressive. Maybe there's hope for me and us non competitive kid swimmers yet.

After eating breakfast, I picked up my race kit and spent $467 on clothing, and that doesn't yet include finishers clothing. Like I blogged earlier, it's my new wardrobe until I die. As part of the race kit pick up process, they weigh you. When I left home I was around 180 with a 21% BMI. I weighed in at 187 lbs with 10.5 % body fat. I liked the 10.5% body fat, but not the weight. However, for sure the scale was screwed up. By look and feel, I feel as good if not better than last years Louisville Ironman. I'm so glad I've been eating well for the past 19 days, I have no body weight regrets for this race.

Reid and I picked up the bike at the Airport and it looked like someone opened the box. One of the hinges was undone. I was concerned something was missing or broken. It turned out everything was okay and I was able to put the bike together with not to much trouble. Afterwards I went for a moderate 90 minute ride. Typical Florida, the roads are not designed for cyclists and quiet frankly I was pretty nervous about getting back in one piece. No matter where you ride in Florida it's dangerous. I think Florida is now ranked as the top state for cyclist fatalities.

It was not ideal weather either. Because of the remnants of hurricane Ida the weather was cloudy, windy and cold. Everyone is saying it will be clear and perfect for Saturday. I hope their right. We went to the pre-race dinner and it was freezing cold and windy. I normally don't go to those dinners because they are usually lame, the food is mediocre and over-priced. But this time, because it's the World Championships and the mandatory pre-race briefing was afterwards, I decided to go. Alice really didn't want to go, I had to pry the money from her hands to pay for the tickets. It was cold and she figured it would suck. She's been to so many in the past, she knows.

She was right. But I'm glad I went. I'd rather know it was lame as opposed to thinking I missed out on a good part of the experience. Actually, I didn't mind going. They had some video that hit me in the soul a bit. Watching it started to feel surreal. May 2007 was my first sprint race after a 15 year layoff and I came in 550 out of 600. Now, in only my third race season, I've qualified to race in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. Here I was, sitting with the best triathletes in the World and I earned the right to be one of them. It was truly surreal.

One other moment that hit me emotionally during the dinner was when Reid turned to me and very seriously asked me "how did you ever get into triathlons"? It was a good question and him asking it surprised me. I even had to think hard, it was so long ago. Then it came back to me.

When I was 17 years old, I woke up hungover on the sofa one Saturday afternoon. I had a half eaten box of chili and chips coagulating on the coffee table behind my head. I picked it up the night before in my drunken state. As I was lying on the sofa, Alice came over and we started watching TV. I was in the prone position, smoking a cigarette and the Hawaiian Ironman came on TV. For some reason, it just gripped me. I saw Dave Scott and I felt a kindred spirit. Intuitively I knew that it was something I could do and be good at. I even told Alice "I'm going to do that one day!" And I really meant it from the core of my being.

It took another year of partying before I decided to get in shape and that first run was hell. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 18 years old, I left my apartment and went for a two mile run and almost died. Literally. I had to stop and walk a lot and when I got home my face was as red as a tomato and I drank a pitcher of water. I flopped on the couch completely exhausted. I remember saying to myself "I'm only 18 years old, how the hell did I get in such bad shape. At 18 years old I can't even run 2 miles!!! What happened to me???? This is scary bad"!!! Within 18 months from that moment, I dropped 50 lbs, quit smoking and did my first Ironman.

Years later, Alice would tell the story of me lying on the couch, hungover, smoking a cigarette, overweight and telling her "I'm going to do that one day". She thought to herself "yeah right!", but didn't say anything. When I finally did it, she would tell others that she learnt to never doubt me and realized if I say I'm going to do something, no matter how crazy it may seem, I'll do it.

Tonight, after I told Reid that story, I started to get emotional inside and even teared up a little, it was small enough no one noticed. I was thinking to myself that "here I am, one week before my 44th birthday, in Clearwater getting ready to race in the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. I would never have dreamt this in a million years. Not even when I was young and in shape. I quit for 15 years, started over and now I'm two days away from racing in Clearwater. It was a personal and emotional moment for me. I was glad we went to the pre-race dinner. Although Alice had been to many pre-race dinners and knows the drill, the kids had never been to one. I think Alyssa and Reid enjoyed it, even though we were all freezing, it's a memory I don't think they'll forget.

Mod Bike - 1:31:12 / 45.83 km / 30.1 kph